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User: Neil+Watson

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Comments · 561

  1. Starting point towards asteroids on DARPA Aims To Reuse Space Junk · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Start with mining orbital junk before heading out to the asteroids. Must be plenty of useful metals and minerals to recover via automatic factories.

  2. Stainless steel wallet? on Shmoocon Demo Shows Easy, Wireless Credit Card Fraud · · Score: 1
  3. Configuration management on Ask Slashdot: Getting a Grip On an Inherited IT Mess? · · Score: 4, Informative

    Automate your servers so you can focus your time elsewhere. I use Cfengine.
    http://watson-wilson.ca/2011/03/enterprise-system-administration-using-configuration-management.html

  4. Books and buy used. on Ask Slashdot: Best Camera For Getting Into Photography? · · Score: 1

    Start with some books on photography. "The digital photography book" 1,2 and 3 by Scott Kelby helped me a lot. This assumes you want a DSLR. You might start with a point and shoot. There is a great market for used photography gear. Buy used and learn as you go.

  5. Re:all it will take is 1 death for auto cars to be on Toyota To Let People Ride In Self-Driving Prius · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So many people die from cars being driven by people now it could hardly be worse.

  6. Re:Down with AV! on MS To Build Antivirus Into Win8: Boon Or Monopoly? · · Score: 1

    If some sort of white listing approach worked then I think that the current batch of AV products and their subscription based sales would be obsolete. Thus I don't think the makers of the current AV products are keen to invent something better.

  7. Down with AV! on MS To Build Antivirus Into Win8: Boon Or Monopoly? · · Score: 1

    I'd rather see something innovative rather than another AV product that is never up to date and always slowing down the system. I'd like to see the current pattern matching approach scuttled. There has to be a better way. What about a serious look at white listing?

  8. Re:Usage based billing is efficient on Canada CRTC Rules Against Usage Based Billing · · Score: 1

    I believe that the UBB plan had little or nothing to do with limited bandwidth. Bell and Rogers own TV channels and networks. They own both content and the means to distribute it. Enter new enterprises that offer content over the Internet, Netflix. I believe UBB is really about keeping control of content and eliminating any content competitors.

  9. Can it be untethered? on Boston Dynamics' PETMAN Humanoid On Video · · Score: 1

    Impressive but, can it be untethered? If so, for how long?

  10. Key pairs? on Gate One 0.9 Released, Brings SSH To the Web · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In the demo the author uses a password to login via SSH. In the documentation I see no option to use a private key.

  11. Re:Huh? on Cisco, US DOJ Fire Another Salvo At Peter Adekeye · · Score: 1

    Money is the motivation. Very likely in the form of Multiven. Mr. Alfred-Adekeye the founder and CEO of Multiven.

  12. Re:Hi Lazyweb! Alternatives? on After Complaints, VMware Revises VSphere 5 Licensing · · Score: 2

    Red Hat is rewriting RHEV to be all open source and will no longer require Windows. I work with it for close to a year.

  13. Good example of why a Mars base would be useful on NASA Announces Discovery of Salty Water On Mars ... Maybe · · Score: 1

    Observations make it look like there might be some sort of water cycle going on on Mars. Now the question is can existing probes provide further evidence? If not is new probe required? If there was a human presence on Mars they could mount an expedition to investigate.

    It's hard to put humans into space but, humans are so much more adaptable to changing mission parameters.

  14. Re:Don't sign it on RIAA Math: Sell 1 Million Albums, Still Owe $500k · · Score: 1

    You are failing to realize that the ball is in the recording industry's park, and the potential artist has no other real options.

    How about get a day job? You make it sound like artists are homeless and destitute. Perhaps they are, as the saying goes, 'starving' but there is always another job out there. It may not be as glamorous as a record deal but there is still a choice to be made.

  15. Don't sign it on RIAA Math: Sell 1 Million Albums, Still Owe $500k · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The RIAA is not fully to blame here. If I don't like a work contract I get it changed or walk away. If someone is too eager to be famous to take the time and negotiate I can hardly feel sorry for them.

  16. Stop the FUD. Be cause and research. on Heroism Is Part of a Nuclear Worker's Job · · Score: -1, Troll

    Please stop adding the hysteria and FUD. The Register has one of the few correct and educated reports on the troubles at Fukushima.
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/18/fukushima_friday/

  17. As designed on For 18 Minutes, 15% of the Internet Routed Through China · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Isn't that what the Internet was designed to do; route as need to get bits to their destination?

  18. Re:Nokia N900 on Open Source-Friendly Smartphones For the Small Office? · · Score: 1, Informative

    I believe the N900 is soon to be discontinued. Maemo is depreciated in favour of Meego. AFAIK Meego will not be officially supported on the N900. Finally the N900 has been plagued with USB failures. There are claims that a design flaw makes the USB port weak and prone to falling off.
    http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=37107

  19. Re:Loose potrait mode for good, and go with landsc on Why Are We Losing Vertical Pixels? · · Score: 1

    I don't believe that it is more natural for your eyes to read the long lines created by wide displays. This is why typesetting usually has lines less than 80 characters long. Any longer and the reader might loose the line.

    For everyone that suggested rotation, I have not seen very many screens that can be rotated. Especially on laptops.

  20. Re:Backwards thinking court on Court Rules Against Woman Who Didn't Like Search Results · · Score: 1

    False is rather relative in the case of search results. The results may be false for one person and accurate for another. Further I believe that search engines often rank results on popularity which has little to do with accuracy.

  21. Re:"private cloud" box is kind of an oxymoron on Oracle Launches 'Private Cloud' Box · · Score: 1

    I think we call that a sauna.

  22. Re:Green Party of Canada on Canadian Government Muzzling Scientists · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Alas, while the conservatives did a 'Unite the right' and gained votes from the old conservative party and the reform party, the left has become increasingly fragmented. The Liberals, the NDP, the Green party. Even the Pirate party has a Canadian segment now. So if you lean conservative you have little choice. If you lean liberal you have so many choices. Thus the current stead of Canadian parliament.

  23. Re:Not so bad after all... on New Crypto Attack Affects Millions of ASP.NET Apps · · Score: 1, Redundant

    > Professionally, it's about the equivalent of setting your root password on a machine to 'password'.

    That certainly never happens.

  24. Re:Meh... on DHS CyberSecurity Misses 1085 Holes On Own Network · · Score: 1

    Very true. I've seen auditors report that users default Umask was incorrectly set. When you try to explain that any user can set any Umask they want so why bother they stare at you like you just told them the Sun was blue.

  25. Re:bureaucracy maybe? on DHS CyberSecurity Misses 1085 Holes On Own Network · · Score: 1

    At some organizations it can take months to get schedule and get approval for patching. When someone claims the business needs a service to be available all of the time it's difficult to find a business level advocate for patching.